


The Boy with Blue Eyes

by RinHaruismyOTP



Category: Free!
Genre: AU, Cute, Early morning runs, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Rin's runs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-26 03:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4988188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RinHaruismyOTP/pseuds/RinHaruismyOTP
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin can't help but be curious about the blue-eyed boy looking out over the sea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Boy with Blue Eyes

The day Rin Matsuoka first saw the Boy with Blue Eyes was a Tuesday morning; the sun had barely risen and the air was crisp, causing faces to turn red with chill. Rin had been running, a part of his usual routine, when he’d caught sight of a dark haired figure on the bench looking over the sea, a book laying abandoned on the seat beside him. Rin had stopped, curious as to who would be up this early other than himself, who was often described as ‘crazy’ by his sister Gou for his early morning runs. The boy – who appeared around the same age as Rin, seventeen or eighteen, perhaps – looked over at him as he stopped, and their eyes caught. Rin felt his breath catch, taken aback by the seemingly endless depth to the azure eyes staring back at him and the stony, guarded expression found within them. Smiling hesitantly at the boy, who did not respond in any way, Rin started moving again across the path lining the beach and commencing the final stretch back to his house.

It wasn’t long before Rin regretted running away. He was curious, to say the least, about the Boy with Blue Eyes, as he’d come to be known in Rin’s mind. Curious, and somewhat entranced. He imagined that had it not been for the steely gaze of those eyes, Rin would not have thought twice about the Boy with Blue Eyes, but as it was he found himself distracted from his schoolwork, and even his swimming, with thoughts of the other boy that day.

The following morning on Rin’s run, the Boy with Blue Eyes was sat on the bench again, with the book once again set down next to him. Rin’s curiosity was strong that day, but he found himself only brave enough to nod to the boy and to scan the title of the book, finding the words _Butterfly for Beginners!_ leaping out at him in a large white font on a black background. Immediately he felt excited about the connection he’d made between himself and the Boy with the Blue Eyes, although he couldn’t work out why it was so exciting that they were linked. He sighed as he ran, feeling strangely sad as he realised that if the boy was learning beginners butterfly it was likely he wouldn’t be as advanced as Rin himself at swimming.

Over the next week or so, seeing the boy sat on the bench each morning quickly became both the high and the low of his day. It was the high because each time he passed the boy’s spot he noticed something different about him: first it was the way a chunk of his hair was always hanging between his eyes, then the cartoon characters that occupied his t-shirts, then how, obvious when the light from the rising sun caught it, his hair was not actually pitch black but a very dark brown, and so on. It was oddly satisfying to notice these things, to feel like the boy wasn’t just a stranger on a bench, but instead someone he knew strange little details that should have meant nothing to him about. On the other hand, this time became the low of the day due to the ever increasing list of regrets Rin was accumulating by passing him by every day. For instance, not talking to the boy came high on that list, not finding out why he was so guarded, not getting to hear what the voice that went with that ever down-turned mouth sounded like, not telling him he was beautiful…

It had taken Rin quite a while to accept he found the Boy with Blue Eyes ridiculously attractive. Beautiful, definitely, that was a fact, anyone could see it, but _attractive_? That was all about personal opinion, and for Rin the idea of being drawn to someone he’d never even spoken to seemed preposterous. But when the boy had appeared in one of his dreams in a manner completely unsuitable for strangers, Rin had been forced to confront the truth of the matter.

That realisation was in part responsible for the extreme reaction he’d had when one morning a couple of weeks after the first sighting of the boy the boy in question had not been sat on his bench. At the sight of the empty seat, Rin felt his heart drop with disappointment, and with the feelings he was feeling but didn’t know _why_ he was feeling, as well as the bad swim practice the previous afternoon, and now this _damning disappointment_ he was feeling (and admittedly possibly his quite emotional nature), he broke down in tears in the middle of his run, slowing himself to a stop and collapsing onto the bench, weariness overcoming him as he curled up on his side and let himself cry.

“Are you okay?”

Rin glanced up and immediately stiffened, crying forgotten. All that was running through his mind was a string of ‘no no no’, denying to himself that this could possibly be happening now, of all times.

Those eyes – was it actually possible that someone could see into another person’s soul? That was certainly how it felt, staring up into the azure eyes that could only belong to one person, the one person whose absence had broken the dam holding back Rin’s frustrated and confused tears. Rin tried to calm himself, wondering whether he’d just been too early for the boy to arrive, before taking in the sight in front of him and jolting upright in surprise. The Boy with the Blue Eyes jumped back in shock at the sudden movement, before frowning.

“Hey, are you okay?” he repeated, a dash of annoyance in his tone, and _his tone_. Rin was momentarily distracted by the voice he’d been so longing to hear – it wasn’t melodic, it wasn’t hauntingly beautiful, it was a normal voice, slightly rough and strained as if he were not used to speaking, or tended to murmur. Somehow, it was perfect, and Rin had no clue why – which was something he was starting to become used to concerning his emotions and feelings towards this Boy with Blue Eyes. Rin mentally shook himself back to the situation at hand and swallowed nervously.

“You’re, uh, you’re wearing running gear,” Rin remarked, the observation having been what had startled him a moment beforehand. The boy just nodded, no hint of expression on his face, not even the guarded look Rin was so familiar with.

“Yeah. I thought I’d run with you,” the boy stated, no question in his tone, no asking _can I_. Rin blinked, feeling his heartbeat racing inside his chest, and desperately trying to force down the blush threatening his cheeks just at the proximity of the other boy.

“I, uh, sure,” he said eloquently, eyes widening when the other’s rolled at the answer. He stood up as if on autopilot, wiping away the remaining dampness from beneath his eyes and bending down to retie his shoes, which had become loose during his run. “I, um, I’m Rin, by the way. Rin Matsuoka.”

“Haruka Nanase,” the other boy replied. “Most people call me Haru.”

Rin nodded and smiled uncertainly, questions that had built up over the past two weeks running through his head, but he said nothing, and the two set off running.

And that was how the 'Boy with Blue Eyes' became 'Haru'.

 

(And subsequently Rin found out Haru wasn’t as far beneath him when it came to swimming as he’d assumed, and that the only reason he was a beginner at butterfly was that he ONLY SWAM BLOODY FREE)

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!! Feedback is much appreciated!!


End file.
